Fixing the Lastpass Errors

Like many people I've been suffering from not being able to access my account since the potential hack of the Lastpass site.

I finally managed to get it working by following these instructions step by step.

1) Turn off Modem and Router
2) Turn off PC
3) Reboot PC but leave the Modem and Router off
4) Load up your browser
5) Clear both Cookies and Cache on the Browser (very important)
6) Remove the Lastpass Extension from your browser
7) Close your browser
8) Start your Modem and Router
9) Once connected load your Browser
10) Re-install the Lastpass Extension
11) Log back on using your original password before the hack
12) If that does not work and you changed your password after the hack then try the new password.

If you are still not working now try to log in via https://lastpass.com/?ac=1

Failing that email their support support@lastpass.com

How Facebook Comments Killed the Techcrunch Community @Disqus

Several months ago I was thrilled that Techcrunch moved over to the Disqus commenting platform for all it's comments. I'm a huge fan of Disqus and I only comment on sites that use it as it keeps all my comments in one place.

However, for reasons that Techcrunch are claiming are to do with Spam/Trolls they moved over to the new and IMHO awful Facebook comments. The Spam and Moderation controls on Facebook comments are vastly inferior to the well established Disqus system.

Since then I've not commented on Techcrunch and I've no desire to read what few comments are now left there.

Today as an example I looked at the Top 20 Posts at Techcruch to see how many comments their were. Here are the results

0 Comments - 5 Posts
1-5 Comments - 6 Posts
6-10 Comments - 3 Posts
11-15 Comments - 5 Posts
>15 Comments - 1 Post

In the past nearly every post when they used Disqus would have over 30 Comments each and it was a really great place to read peoples comments.

It's obvious to me that Facebook Comments has effectively killed the community at Techcrunch and I'm sure this is hurting their stats.

I wonder how long it will take them to realise this and go back to Disqus or are they too afraid of losing face by backtracking?

Some New Features coming to Blogger

Which ones are you most excited about?

I have to admit I love the new look of the Editor and Dashboard, and I hope the Rich Text Editor works well.

Get Instant Email Notifications of the Sites you follow

Most people these days follow blogs via a Feedreader or if they have one a Twitter Account.

I still like to get an email notification whenever some of my favorite sites get updated.

To do this we're going to use a free 3rd Party Service called notify.me

Follow these simple instructions and you'll be up and running in a couple of minutes. FYI: I use this service myself.

Adding Facebook Social Plugins to your Blogger Blog

Facebook is all the rage these days and adding it to your blog is a good way to drive extra traffic and make your site more "social".

However, it's not very simple for new blogger to add the various Facebook social plugins to your site.

This guide will hopefully change all that!

Details after the cut

Easy Fix to make your Blog more Smartphone Friendly

Here is a quick tip that you can do to make your website more Mobile Friendly for phones such as the iPhone, iPad and the great Android Phones.

1) Goto Design, Edit HTML

2) Under the < head > line simply add this code.

<meta content='IE=EmulateIE7' http-equiv='X-UA-Compatible'/>
<b:if cond='data:blog.isMobile'>
<meta content='width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=0' name='viewport'/>
<b:else/>
<meta content='width=1100' name='viewport'/>
</b:if>



3) Click Save and Voila.

My 1 Month Cloud Computing Challenge - Day 4

Day 3 has been posted below.

This is something I've been thinking about doing for a while..... I hope you can follow along with me and offer any advice help along the way.

What is the Cloud Computing Challenge
Simply put, to see if I can do all my day to day stuff entirely in the Cloud, that is without using any software or file on my hard disk (with the exception of the my Browser (Chrome) and Windows 7).

This means that everything I do on my computer I have to do entirely within my browser and I'm not allowed to store or use any files onto my PC.

How long will the Challenge Last
I'm going to see if I can last 1 full month using nothing but my Browser.

When does it start?
Now! From this post onwards I will use nothing but my Browser.

I will update this post regularly as I face new hurdles and need advice software.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

New Blogger Template Designer

I was so thrilled to see that Blogger have just released a new Template Designer.

This was something that has been missing for Blogger in order for Blogger users to get nice looking custom designs.

I've been playing around with it and it's really rather excellent. My blog today was redesigned using the new editor in just under 5 mins.

You can read more about the new Template Editor here.

Also if you have any ideas about new features for the Template Editor you can go here and vote on existing suggestions or create your own suggestion.

Blogger Template Editor Product Suggestions

If you have used it to revamp/re-design your blog, leave your blog link in the comments below and I will rate it out of 10 and give you a 1 line review and suggestion for improvements.

How to Share your Content with AddThis

Ok, today we're going to take a look about how to add the popular "Add This" button to your Blogger blog. It's a great way to allow readers to share your content on a number of social media sites.

Supercharge your Blog Comments with Disqus

Ok, as we know, most Blog commenting systems suck, especially Blogger! However if you follow this simple guide your blog will be the envy of your friends and fellow bloggers.

In this guide we will introduce you to the Disqus commenting system which is probably the most popular 3rd party commenting system out there.. and it's VERY impressive.

Before we get into how to install etc, lets first look at the advantages that Disqus Provides.

Google Nexus One - I want one

The new Google Phone looks pretty cool. Need to start saving.

Better Polls for your Site

A great way of adding some interactivity to a blog for your readers is that of asking poll questions. There are plenty of poll making sites out there, and even Blogger itself has it's own simple poll gadget. However if you're serious about your polls then you really need to check out PollDaddy. It's probably the de-facto standard of Polls around the blogsphere and some of the largest blogs on the net use it ... and best of all, it's free!

So lets take a quick look at Polldaddy and what you can do.

Adding a Stat Counter to your Blog

Like most bloggers it's always nice to know more about who is reading your site, where they come from and what they are reading etc. This post will show you how to add an excellent free statcounter to your site which will give you access to a large amount of useful information.

This should be sufficient for 90%+ of bloggers. However, if you later find yourself being in the envious position of getting 1000's of hits per day then you can always look at a more powerful solution such Google Analytics which I will write about later on.

Ok, so how do we get some stats on our blog? For the purposes of this How-To I'll be using the excellent free service from Statcounter and assume you have a Blogger blog, although the technique applies the same to almost all the Blogging services out there.

Liven up your Twitter Posts

I'm a huge fan of Twitter and I often find myself re-tweeting a lot of interesting content from a lot of the same sites that I follow. I was looking for a way to automate some of this and found a recently added new feature in Google that allows me to automatically re-tweet content even whilst I'm away. This has the benefit of saving you time as well as keeping your tweets interesting.

I will attempt to explain below how to do this. It's very simple and should take you just a couple of minutes. We shall be doing this for one of my favorite tech sites, Mashable.

Blog Comments - Best 3rd Party Solution?

Disqus vs JS-Kit/Echo vs Blogger vs IntenseDebate

Before setting up my first blog I spent some time looking at the various comments systems that are available for the Blogger Platform.

The default comments that come with Blogger are Ok but they don't allow for some of the more sophisticated Social Media notifications that are becoming more and more popular.

My first ever blog post

I thought it was about time to create my first ever blog and post. I have also decided to create a Facebook page that I'll be filling out with more content later.

My blog will have little bits of info that I've found in my Internet Geek Travel around the web. It will include info on new Websites and startups, Computer tools and utilities, help on the Blogger Platform, all things Google as well and stuff on TV Shows.

I hope you enjoy it.

If you have any suggestions about what you would like to see on the blog please leave me a comment. I love to read all your comments.